SAN DOMINGO CHARACTERS AND COSTUMES. 



249 



over their shoulders, and the females in chemise and closely cinc- 

 tured petticoat of fanciful colors, whilst their heads, and thinly clad 

 bosoms, are folded and partly concealed in their graceful rebozos. 

 Then there are the wretched leperos, whose long and tangled hair 

 falls in wierd strands over their tawny necks and dirty brows, be- 

 neath which flash the sharp black eyes that are constantly on the 

 watch for something to do, to drink, to eat, or to steal. In the 

 neighborhood of the pulquerias or liquor shops, crowds of these 

 social vermin swarm and sleep. 



CHURCH OF SAN DOMINGO AND THE INQUISITION. 



Pushing his way, eagerly and industriously through the crowd, 

 the laborious aguador, or water carrier elbows his way, as he trots 

 his rounds to fulfil his daily task with his twin jars of the refreshing 

 fluid, one of w T hich he bears upon his back, suspended by a strap 

 around his brow, and balanced by another which depends from a 

 leathern thong, which rests upon the back of his head. Hard by 

 the aguador, appear the carbonero, or coal dealer, — the poultry 

 seller, — the crockery pedlar, or the porter, — all of whom bear 

 their burdens on their shoulders, and move along in that ambling 

 trot which is oeculiar to the laborers and Indians of Mexico. Large 



